Classroom Instructors’ Perceptions of Site Leadership and Interest Outcomes within a Summer Engineering Program (Evaluation)

Trina L. Fletcher; Monique S Ross; Christopher Alexander Carr; Brittany Boyd

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Conference: 2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Columbus, Ohio
Publication Date: June 24, 2017
Start Date: June 24, 2017
End Date: June 28, 2017
Conference Session: Pre-college: Summer Experiences for Students and Teachers (2)
Tagged Division: Pre-College Engineering Education Division
Tagged Topic: Diversity
Page Count: 15
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--28037
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/28037
Download Count: 596

Paper Authors

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Trina L. Fletcher Purdue University, West Lafayette (College of Engineering) orcid.org/0000-0002-1765-5957

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Trina Fletcher is currently a doctoral candidate within the School of Engineering Education at Purdue University. Her research focus includes informal STEM education, professional development, African Americans in STEM and single-sex versus coeducation learning environments. Prior to Purdue and NSBE, she spent time in industry holding technical and operations-based roles and has experience with outreach projects focused on STEM education and mentoring.

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Monique S Ross Florida International University orcid.org/0000-0002-6320-636X

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Monique Ross holds a doctoral degree in Engineering Education from Purdue University. She has a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering from Elizabethtown College, a Master’s degree in Computer Science and Software Engineering from Auburn University, eleven years of experience in industry as a software engineer, and three years as a full-time faculty in the departments of computer science and engineering. Her interests focus on broadening participation in engineering through the exploration of: 1) race, gender, and identity in the engineering workplace; 2) discipline-based education research (with a focus on computer science and computer engineering courses) in order to inform pedagogical practices that garner interest and retain women and minorities in computer-related engineering fields.

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Christopher Alexander Carr National Society of Black Engineers

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Christopher Carr is the Director, Collegiate & Professional Programs at the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE). He is the World Headquarters representative for the 232 NSBE collegiate chapters and 63 professional chapters around the world at conferences, workshops, panels, and webinars. Christopher mainly works in the area of STEM education and policy, with a particular passion for access to opportunity, diversity in STEM, and education retention. Christopher is a frequent collaborator with the White House Office of Science & Technology Policy on issues of cultural intelligence, mentorship, and youth leadership in STEM. Christopher holds a Bachelor of Arts in International Relation from William Jewell College, and a Master of Public Policy from Pepperdine University. He is currently working on his Doctorate of Education degree (interdisciplinary leadership focus) at Creighton University.

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Brittany Boyd National Society of Black Engineers orcid.org/0000-0001-8956-1645

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Abstract

To help address the issue of underrepresentation of African Americans obtaining engineering degrees and matriculating into engineering industry, the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) launched the Summer Engineering Experience for Kids (SEEK) program in 2007. As of 2015, the program had 17 sites across 16 major U.S. cities. The free 3-week summer camp provides access to engineering education activities through competition based, hands-on curriculum. At each of the locations, four individuals were hired to serve as site leaders to oversee all operations and logistics at the program: 1) Site Director 2) Assistant Site Director 3) Operations Specialist and 4) Data Specialist. Classroom instructors, who are referred to as mentors, were hired at a 6:1 ratio with a total of 3 per class. The site leaders and classroom mentors were primarily comprised of undergraduate and graduate engineering, STEM non-engineering and education majors. During the summer of 2015, instructor surveys and student pre and post assessments were distributed, collected and analyzed by the external evaluator. The instructor survey data was analyzed and findings were shared within one of the three reports provided to NSBE by the external evaluator including the overall, all-sites report, site-specific reports and an internal report. However, several of the 34 questions within the instructor post-program survey, a mix of open-ended and likert scale, were not analyzed by the external evaluator. A quantitative analysis will be conducted using raw data from questions related to classroom instructors’ feedback on site leadership performance including areas of management, supervision, their ability to give feedback, professionalism, work ethic and problem solving skills. These results will then be compared to the classroom instructors interest outcomes on the SEEK program. The implications of this research include better understanding the role of leadership during short-term, out-of-school (OST) engineering programs such as training and professional development and other potential best practices.

Citation
Format

Fletcher, T. L., & Ross, M. S., & Carr, C. A., & Boyd, B. (2017, June), Classroom Instructors’ Perceptions of Site Leadership and Interest Outcomes within a Summer Engineering Program (Evaluation) Paper presented at 2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Columbus, Ohio. 10.18260/1-2--28037

TY - CPAPER
AB - To help address the issue of underrepresentation of African Americans obtaining engineering degrees and matriculating into engineering industry, the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) launched the Summer Engineering Experience for Kids (SEEK) program in 2007. As of 2015, the program had 17 sites across 16 major U.S. cities. The free 3-week summer camp provides access to engineering education activities through competition based, hands-on curriculum. At each of the locations, four individuals were hired to serve as site leaders to oversee all operations and logistics at the program: 1) Site Director 2) Assistant Site Director 3) Operations Specialist and 4) Data Specialist. Classroom instructors, who are referred to as mentors, were hired at a 6:1 ratio with a total of 3 per class. The site leaders and classroom mentors were primarily comprised of undergraduate and graduate engineering, STEM non-engineering and education majors.

During the summer of 2015, instructor surveys and student pre and post assessments were distributed, collected and analyzed by the external evaluator. The instructor survey data was analyzed and findings were shared within one of the three reports provided to NSBE by the external evaluator including the overall, all-sites report, site-specific reports and an internal report. However, several of the 34 questions within the instructor post-program survey, a mix of open-ended and likert scale, were not analyzed by the external evaluator. A quantitative analysis will be conducted using raw data from questions related to classroom instructors’ feedback on site leadership performance including areas of management, supervision, their ability to give feedback, professionalism, work ethic and problem solving skills. These results will then be compared to the classroom instructors interest outcomes on the SEEK program. The implications of this research include better understanding the role of leadership during short-term, out-of-school (OST) engineering programs such as training and professional development and other potential best practices.

AU - Trina L. Fletcher
AU - Monique S Ross
AU - Christopher Alexander Carr
AU - Brittany Boyd
CY - Columbus, Ohio
DA - 2017/06/24
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - Classroom Instructors’ Perceptions of Site Leadership and Interest Outcomes within a Summer Engineering Program (Evaluation)
UR - https://peer.asee.org/28037
DO - 10.18260/1-2--28037
ER -